Gloria Stuart and Grace Bradley were considered for the part of Gay Merrick before model-turned-actress Mari Coleman--aka Judith Allen--was cast.
Cecil B. DeMille and co-screenwriter Bartlett Cormack consulted a student from Los Angeles High School, Horace Hahn, to ensure that the main characters spoke with appropriate modern slang.
Cecil B. DeMille wanted Paul Muni as his first choice for gangster Louis Garrett, but Muni declined because he was committed to a play at the Cass Theater in Detroit. Walter Huston was considered but was also unavailable.
Chester Morris was second choice the role of Louis Garrett, but he proved to be too expensive.
Junior Durkin was Cecil B. DeMille's first choice for the role of Steve Smith. Franchot Tone was also considered but, at the age of 27, was deemed too old.
Film debut of Judith Allen. She withheld from director Cecil B. DeMille the fact that she was married, information that was later used in an embarrassing manner by newspaper reporters. DeMille was reportedly so furious with Allen that he used his influence to damage her later career.
Film debut of Don 'Red' Barry.
One of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.
Shooting from May 17-June 21,1933,released August 25.
The only film in which John Carradine was billed under the name John Peter Richmond, which he used from 1932 until 1935. He received no on-screen credit in any of his other features during that period.
While in pre-production for this film, 'Cecil B. deMille' was also planning a subsequent epic film called "The End of the World" which was inspired in part by the novel 'When Worlds Collide' by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, and by the film End of the World. DeMille went so far as to purchase the rights to both subjects ('When Worlds Collide' was bought for $7,5000). Ultimately the script was never even written and the project was discarded.